I was beyond hyped when God of War Sons of Sparta was revealed and subsequently shadow dropped — one of my favourite franchises was being expanded upon. Unfortunately, Sons of Sparta lacks the epic narratives that make God of War games so great, and traversing the world is slow and dull for the majority of the game.
The Sons of Sparta
Story is usually a major part of a God of War game; Kratos single-mindedly and unstoppably moving towards his goal, whether that be bloody revenge or a journey of redemption. Meanwhile, Sons of Sparta meanders through its plot.
The game is set long before Kratos became the God of War, telling a story of his past to his daughter Calliope. Kratos and his brother Deimos are young Spartan warriors, out to prove themselves. The lion’s share of the plot has you searching for Vasilis — a missing Spartan trainee — but all the evidence points to him holding his own in a dangerous world, out gathering ingredients for new recipe.
Deimos is adamant they need to find Vasilis before he gets hurt, even though he is passing through areas that give the brothers a tough time. It just removes any urgency or tension for me. The game doesn’t give me a good reason to care about this boy, we never meet him and develop no connections with him. Even Kratos deems the search a waste of time.
Tip of the spear
Combat is the game’s saving grace. The variety of mythological beasties to slay is impressive, and there’s plenty of challenge to be had; Sons of Sparta isn’t a game where you can simply mash buttons and expect to come out of battle alive.
You wield a Spartan Dory as your one main weapon. Upgrades can be made to the spear, swapping out parts to change status effects and abilities, but tying special attacks to weapon parts unfortunately limits how many you can equip at once. It’s a decent weapon, but lacks the spectacle and fun factor that others in the series have: the Blades of Chaos, Leviathan Axe, or even the Draupnir Spear itself.
You also have a shield to block and parry, and a doge roll too. As you progress you collect various magical relics that are used for puzzle solving in the world, but can also be wielded in combat. I didn’t use the artefacts much in the first half of the game however, as they chew through mana too fast to be that useful in battle.
In combination, the spear, special attacks and magic make up a decent arsenal for kicking monster… Well, arse.
Spartan Rage Frustration
There are a number of gameplay elements that feel outdated and frustrating, like not being able to skip dialogue. While that might seem minor, it can get pretty annoying when you’re dying multiple times to a tough encounter then spawning back into the same unskippable dialogue again and again.
Just touching an enemy instantly knocks you back, so if an enemy is camping on the edge of a cliff (which they do a lot) then it’s almost impossible to get up there to fight properly and you’re left rapidly stabbing upwards to whittle down their health. It can also trap you between mobs of enemies — or between an enemy and a wall — and you’re left helplessly staring as your health whittles down to zero.
Load times upon death are longer than you’d expect from a smaller-scale game running on a PS5. While pretty, the graphics aren’t exactly intensive, and the game consists of small 2D maps with mini-loads between areas, so I would’ve expected load times to be lightning fast.
Most frustratingly, after you’ve talked to your brother, you then have to wait for him to exit offscreen before you can move again. It might only be a few seconds wait, but it happens frequently and needlessly slows the pace of the game.
The real killer is that movement in the game takes far too long to get fun. Kratos feels slow and very grounded, which isn’t really what you want from a Metroidvania. It takes around 10 hours just to unlock a double jump, which — along with other abilities — drastically improves how the game feels to play… But it’s too little, too late.
God of Bore — Is there enough here to keep players’ interest?
While beautiful to look at, Sons of Sparta just takes far too long to find the fun. Traversal is slow and boring for half of the game, technical choices make it feel outdated at times, and the story just isn’t compelling. Thankfully the combat is solid with a pantheon of mythological beasts to stab, propping up an otherwise middling game. The last quarter of the game picks up dramatically but it’s a slog to get there.
It’s a shame the game doesn’t hit in more areas, because I could really see a God of War metroidvania working, but with a fully powered Kratos and a more meaningful story.
Quest Daily scores God of War Sons of Sparta:
7/10
God of War Sons of Sparta is out now on PlayStation 5.
Access to God of War Sons of Sparta was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
